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SPEECH i,^. 



OF 

HON. BENJAMIN F. TRACY, 

BEFOEE THE 

nl^i^Me0eI Club of Boeton, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY, February 12th, 1898. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. BENJAMIN F. TRACY, 



BEFORE THE 



fIDibMeecx Club of iBoston, 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



LENCOLN'S BIRTHDAY, February 12tli, 1898. 



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Q-ift 
H. C. Lodge 

12 Ja. -06 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Middlesex 
Club: This day is consecrated by the Nation to the 
memory of our martyred President, Abraham 
Lincoln. 

On each recurring anniversary of his birth, the 
strife and bustle of business ceases, while seventy 
millions of people, with reverent hearts, pay their 
tribute of love and respect to that matchless leader 
and patriot who guided the nation successfully 
through four years of civil war, preserved the 
Union and restored it to prosperity and peace. 

He was the offspring of the Republic, the product 
of free institutions. In no other country could 
such a career as his have been possible. 

I shall not attempt here to trace at length the 
marvellous life of one who, born and reared in 
extreme poverty, without any advantages of early 
education, by sheer force of character and intellect, 
in twenty five years raised himself from the humble 
position of a laborer working for monthly wages to 
the chief magistracy of a Nation of thirty millions 
of free and independent people. 

Born in Kentucky, his boyhood was passed in a 
severe struggle for existence against the adverse con- 
ditions of frontier life. Beyond learning to read 
and write and the simple rules of arithmatic 
he had no early education. His occupa- 
tions during early manhood were of the 
hiimblest kind — now a llatboatman on the river, 
now keeping a country store, then occasion- 
ally working as a surveyor. In his speech at New 
Haven in 1860, he said: "I am not ashamed to 
confess that twenty-five years ago I was a hired 
laborer mauling rails and at work on a flatboat." 



When twenty-five years old, Lincoln entered the 
Legislature and took up the study of the law, still 
supporting himself by manual labor. Two years 
later he entered upon the practice of his profession 
at Springfield. Thus began, all things considered, 
the most marvellous career of modern times. 

In 1846 he was elected to Congress, for one term, 
but we hear little of him politically until the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise act in 1854. The passage 
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act aroused the people of 
the North and filled them w^ith apprehension and 
alarm. Lincoln recognized the gravity of the crisis 
and at once assumed the leadership of his party in 
Illinois He was its candidate in 1855 for the 
United States Senate but, lacking a few votes of a 
majority, he directed his friends to vote for 
Trumbull, an anti-Nebraska Democrat. 

Three years afterwards, in 1858, he was again the 
candidate of his party for the Senate, this time 
against Senator Douglas himself. Then came the 
battle royal. The two candidates spoke from the 
same platform at a series of meetings held in differ- 
ent parts of the State. It was the most important 
political debate that ever occurred in this country. 
Douglas had achieved a reputation as one of the 
most powerful debaters in the Senate, and was the 
admitted leader of his party in what was then 
known as the Northwest. He was believed to be 
its coming candidate for the Presidency. 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the con- 
test between freedom and slavery for the possession 
of Kansas, amounting at times almost to a condition 
of civil war, and the open threat of the South to 
dissolve the Union in case it should be denied the 
privilege of extending slavery made the discussion 
of the slave question sharp and bitter. The presi- 
dential campaign of 1856 had given the Rei^ublicans 
high hopes of success in 1860. Under these circum- 



stances, the open contest for the Senate between 
Douglas and Lincoln before the people of the State of 
Illinois was Invested with national importance, and 
aroused the deepest interest throughout the country. 
It was not believed that Lincoln was the equal of 
Douglas in such a series of debates, and the Eastern 
Republicans feared that Douglas would achieve a 
great personal triumph. Their first meeting upon a 
public platform served to change this impression. 
Lincoln's friends were everywhere surprised and 
delighted, and even the Democrats were compelled 
to admit that Douglas had at last found in his own 
State a foeman worthy of his steel. Every 
succeeding speech increased Lincoln's reputation. 
He drove his opponent to assume positions which 
alienated from him the support of the South 
as a presidential candidate in 1860, and 
made the union of the Democratic party upon a 
single candidate for the presidency impossible. At 
the close of the contest, although defeated for the 
Senate, Lincoln had won the Presidency, and had 
opened for himself a career which was to place his 
name forever beside that of Washington. Washing- 
ton and Lincoln— two names to be henceforth 
inseparable in American history. 

Lincoln at once became the recognized candidate 
of his State for the Republican nomination. 
Popular in the West, he had never been heard in 
the East. In February, I860, three months before 
the meeting of the Chicago convention, it was 
determined by his friends that he should visit the 
East and make a political address in New York. 
This was his famous Cooper Institute speech. It 
was a revelation to the people of the East of 
Lincoln's powers of reasoning and oratory. The 
New YorTc Trihune declared that "No man ever 
before made such an impression on his first appeal 
to a New York audience." There is no doubt 
that this speech and his later addresses in New 
England cities contributed largely to Lincoln's 
nomination for the Presidency. 



6 

In connection with this speech there is a story of 
Mr. Lincoln touching its preparation, which I am 
now permitted to tell. Mr. Joseph Medill, then 
the young associate editor of the Chicago Tribune 
was a friend of Lincoln and had been his companion 
during the Douglas debates. Shortly before his 
visit to New York, Lincoln brought his proposed 
speech to the Tribune office and asked Dr. Ray, 
the editor, and Medill to read it. "Boys," he 
said, "I have prepared the speech that I intend to 
deliver in New York and have brought the manu- 
script along with me from Springfield. I would 
like to have you examine it and note down such 
changes of words as you think will improve it, 
without materially altering the ideas or arguments. ' ' 
Lincoln left the manuscript with them, promising 
to call for it the next day, and Ray and Medill 
laid aside their work and devoted themselves to the 
delicate task. One read slowly while the other 
listened attentively and the reading was frequently 
interrupted to consider and discuss suggested 
improvements of diction. It was well past mid- 
night before their work was completed, and they 
returned to the office early the next morning to 
re-examine the revised and improved manuscript. 
"When Mr. Lincoln came in they handed him their 
numerous notes, with references carefully marked 
on the margin, with the satisfied feeling that by 
their efforts the speech had been brought to a high 
degree of perfection. He thanked them cordially 
for their trouble and took his leave, carrying with 
him both the manuscript and their notes. A few 
days later the news reached Chicago that Mr. 
Lincoln had made his speech and that it had been a 
triumphant success. In due course the New York 
papers arrived in Chicago Avith the text of the 
address and comments praising its loftiness of 
tone, the cogency of its reasoning and the vigor of 
its expression. Ray and Medill seized copies 



of the papers and plunged eagerly into the report, 
congratulating themselves on the successful efifect 
of the polish they had applied to the address. 
They had not read far before Ray said:."Medill, 
he does not seem to have made much use of our 
notes." Reading on further, he said again: 
"Medill, I believe old Abe must have mislaid our 
manuscript." Medill replied: "More likely he 
threw it out of the car window." Ray tried to 
laugh and said: "This must have been meant for 
one of his waggish jokes." "Perhaps so," replied 
Medill, "but we must keep this joke to ourselves, 
for if the boys find it out they will never get 
through telling it at our expense." The speech 
had been delivered as originally written. No 
allusion was ever made to this incident by Mr. 
Lincoln, and it is now told publicly for the first 
time, nearly forty years after the oc(Uirrence. 

As had been anticipated, at the next national con- 
vention the Democratic party divided between 
Douglas and Breckinridge, thus making Lincoln's 
election certain from the beginning. 

During the four years which followed his inaug- 
uration this country was the scene of the greatest 
civil war of history. More than two millions of 
men gave their services to the Government to 
maintain the Union and at the close of the war in 
April, 1865, the army consisted of more than a 
million men. Two hundred thousand lives were 
sacrificed in the struggle. How magnificently 
Lincoln bore himself throughout that memorable 
contest is now a matter of history, universally 
recognized by friend and foe alike. 

Coming to the discharge of his Presidential 
duties, with but slight knowledge of the public 
men of the country upon whom he must rely for 
counsel, without experienced officers to place in 
important commands, he was compelled for two 
years to grope his way largely in the dark. Em- 



barrassed by dissentions and rivalries in Ms Cabinet 
and by opposing factions struggling for supremacy 
in tlie party, driven to face disaster after disaster 
in the field, the burden he was forced to bear would 
have broken the hearts of most men. Still, he 
fought on, hoped on. Call succeeded call for more 
troops. As one general failed, a new trial was 
made with another, but with no certain prospect 
that the trial would prove a success. Meanwhile, 
Lincoln was devoting all his energies to mastering 
the details of administration, both civil and 
military, which were essential to make one man the 
master spirit who should control every important 
movement in the struggle. Often disappointed and 
deceived, but "with malice towards none and with 
charity to all," he fought on with unfaltering 
courage until, in July, 1863, the daylight broke at 
last. On the fourth of that month, Gettysburg, 
the decisive battle of the war, had been won; and 
Vicksburg, the last stronghold of the Confederates 
on the Mississippi, surrendered. The clouds had 
rolled away. Two years of discouragement and 
defeat had at length discovered the great captains 
who could be safely entrusted with the charge of 
military movements in the field. New assignments 
of generals were made. Grant was brought East 
and made Lieutenant -General; Meade the hero of 
Gettysburg, retained under Grant the command of 
the Army of the Potomac ; Sheridan was placed at 
the head of the cavalry; while Sherman and 
Thomas directed the armies in the West. From 
that moment victory was assured. A concerted 
movement of the armies of the nation upon Rich- 
mond in the East and Atlanta in the South began 
in April, 1864, and less than a year sufficed to 
bring the war to a triumphant close. Lee was 
driven from the banks of the Rappahannock and 
shut up in Richmond, while Sherman moved on 
Atlanta and his triumphant army swept through 



9 

Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah, and thence along 
the coast through the Carolinas, cutting off Lee's 
communications in the rear. Finally Richmond 
was captured, the armies of the Confederacy were 
crushed, and the Union saved. 

Looking back over the four years of this terrible 
conflict we now see how largely the triumph was due 
to the mental and moral characteristics of Lincoln. 
His clear and strong intelligence, his sound judg- 
ment of men and of affairs, his uncommon common- 
sense, and his judicial quality of mind which was 
never swayed by sophistries or calumnies from a 
direct and logical course of reasoning, gave him a 
grasp of the situation such as no one about him 
possessed to an equal degree. His innate ux)right- 
ness and truthfulness led him to meet all men and 
all situations with a manly frankness and straight- 
forwardness. He combined in a rare degree the 
qualities essential to true greatness. He had a 
powerful intellect, undaunted courage, a keen sense 
of justice, and with it all a native kindness and 
gentleness of heart, and a deep symj)athy with 
human suffering. His patriotism was boundless. 
"With him love of country was as strong as the 
instinct of life itself. His marvellous buoyancy of 
spirit, aided by a keen sense of humor, infused 
hope into those around him in the darkest moments; 
while his broad sympathies, combined with a rare 
faculty of expression, enabled him to place great 
truths before the masses of the people in a form 
that appealed alike to the heart and to the under- 
standing of of all. Thus by turns appealing and 
encouraging, but always wisely leading, guiding, 
directing, he was able to biing this great country 
successfully through its appalling crisis. Lincoln 
was the man for that crisis. He was a man raised 
up by the Almighty to lead the Nation through the 
bitter conflict for the abolition of slavery, a conflict 
long foreseen to be inevitable — a noble work, nobly 



10 

^one — and the fame of him who achieved it is 
immortal./ 

The great benefit which flows from the public ob- 
servance of each recurring anniversary of Lincoln's 
birth is the love of country which his life and 
services inspire in the you ng. Let us turn from that 
life of marvellous achievement to consider briefly 
the past and to contemplate the future of the 
country which he so ably and so faithfully served. 

Nearly a century and a quarter has passed into 
history since the Declaration of Independence, and 
we may truly say that this history is a history of 
national i^rogress, not only towards material 
prosperity, but towards a higher standard of public 
virtue, truth and justice. The century now 
drawing to a close has been eventful in putting at 
rest great questions of foreign and domestic policy 
upon which the security and the very existence of 
the Nation deiDended. The slavery of three million 
men and women is no longer tolerated, and liberty 
and equality are by the fundamental law of the 
land guaranteed alike to all. The germ of 
secession and disintegration, hatched in the fertile 
brain of Jefferson, which, under the slavery 
agitation, developed into a malignant and cancerous 
growth, has been extirpated by the sword. Never 
again will the right of the nation to defend its own 
existence by force of arms be questioned or denied. 
In material prosperity our growth has been the 
marvel of the century; our population has 
increased from three millions to seventy-five 
millions and, excluding Alaska, our area has been 
more than doubled. 

In this brief period in the life of a nation, we 
have grown from one of the smallest and weakest 
to be one of the largest, most populous, and, in all 
that constitutes real strength and wealth, among 
the richest and most powerful of the nations of the 
earth. Wliile more than doubling our own area, 



11 

we have for three-quarters of a century successfully 
prevented any European nation from extending its 
territory or dominion upon the Western Hemis- 
I)here. 

In the beginning of the present century the Miss- 
issippi was our western boundary, while Louisiana 
and Florida, owned respectively by France and 
Spain, closed the mouth of the river to the free navi- 
gation of our people, cutting us off from the waters 
of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1803 Jefferson purchased 
Louisiana from France, and by this single act we ac- 
quired a continuous territory from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific. It is difficult now to conceive that there 
ever was a time when both banks of the Mississippi 
were not ours, but it is still more difficult to realize 
that there were those among us by whom the 
f)urchase of Louisiana was strenuously opposed, 
even to a threatened dissolution of the Union. The 
act was denounced as unconstitutional and as a 
rank usurpation of power. Jefferson, while insist- 
ing upon the measure, admitted that he found no 
warrant for it in the Constitution. His doubts 
were born of his peculiar tlieorj; of the nature of 
that instrument. He regarded the United States, 
not as a nation, but as a mere league of independ- 
ent States, associated only for certain purposes 
s|)ecifically enumerated in the fundamental law. 
But the opening of the Mississippi to the free 
navigation of the people of the Union was a 
national necessity, and with Jefferson this necessity 
was its justification. The statesman triumphed 
over the theorist. Then followed in succession the 
purchase of Florida, the annexation of Texas, and 
the acquisition of California, Arizona and New 
Mexico, crowned by the purchase of Alaska. 
Every one of these extensions met with vehe- 
ment opposition, but who now doubts the pro- 
found wisdom and statemanship that made them? 
The Louisiana purchase is the most important 



12 

event in the early history of the Republic — more 
important almost than the preservation of the 
Union, for without it Lincoln would have found no 
Union to preserve. With the Mississippi as our 
western boundary and closed to our free navigation 
the Union would have distegrated and broken up 
long bfore 1861. 

But there is a class of people who now say that 
this policy of acquisition, by which we have grown 
great and powerful, should cease, that the nation 
is large enough, and that even the annexation 
of the Hawaiian Islands, with their own consent 
and with the consent of the whole world, would 
mark a new departure in national policy, fraught 
with infinite trouble and disaster. They admit, 
for it is admitted by all, that in no event can the 
United States permit any other great power to con- 
trol these islands. That has been our settled 
policy in support of which all political parties have 
been united for more than fifty years. Even now 
the opponents of annexation in the Senate have 
introduced a resolution declaring that the exercise 
of control over the Hawaiian Islands by any other 
government would be deemed an act unfriendly to 
the United States. This is extending the Monroe 
doctrine to the Hawaiian Republic. It is a 
declaration that those islands belong to this con- 
tinent, and that their possession by a foreign power 
would be dangerous to our peace and safety. If 
this be true, and if the island republic is not 
powerful enough to maintain itself against foreign 
aggression, as it clearly is not, we must either 
annex it or guarantee its independence. If we 
are not prepared to do this, we must abandon the 
Monroe doctrine as applied to the islands of the sea. 

That the Hawaiian Islands are essential to 
the defense of our western coast is obvious to all 
who have given the subject the most casual con- 
sideration. They are the key to the commerce of 



13 

the Pacific. With these islands in the possession 
of a great naval power, the commerce of any other 
nation could be driven from that ocean. In time 
of war the islands would, in the possession of an 
enemy, furnish a base for a successful attack upon 
our Western coast. With the islands in our posses- 
sion, such an attack would be impossible. Coal is 
the vital power of a modern navy. No fleet of ships 
can wage a successful war upon a foreign coast 
where it has to steam five thousand miles from its 
base of supplies. The Hawaiian Islands can alone 
afford this necessary base for an enemy. Their 
possession by us is vital to the protection of our 
coast in time of war, and to the growth of our com- 
mercial interests in time of peace. 

It is said that their annexation would make it 
necessary for us to fortify and defend them. But 
by fortifying in time of peace and holding this 
single point in time of war, we fortify and defend 
tvvo thousand miles of our western coast. 

Again, it is said that the annexation of the 
Hawaiian Islands will be the beginning of a general 
scheme of colonization. This is the old cry that 
the nation cannot trust itself. It is the same cry 
that is raised by un-Americans domiciled here that 
we must not have a navy, because if the nation 
had a navy as a means of defense, it would use it 
as a means of conquest. This cry of distrust is a 
false and traitorous cry. It is a slander upon the 
most peaceful and conservative nation known to 
history. We have no ambition for war, either for 
glory or for conquest. During the one hundred 
and fifteen years since the treaty of peace acknowl- 
edging our independence, we have had but two 
foreign wars. Had we desired a war of conquest, 
we would have had it in 1865. Never did a nation 
have greater cause for war than we had against 
England then, and never would the results of 
victory have been greater. Our navy at the close 



14 

of our civil war was the strongest and most 
efficient navy in the world. We could then have 
met England upon the sea on equal terms and could 
have destroyed her commerce, as she had already 
destroyed ours. Whatever else might have been the 
issue of such a war, Canada would be ours, and 
never again could the Great Lakes on our 
norther Q frontier become the scene of a naval 
conflict. The commerce of these lakes, greater 
than that borne upon any other inland sea, 
and the great cities which maintain it, from 
Chicago to Oswego, could never be menaced 
with destruction by a hostile fleet. The sight of 
the united armies of Grant and Lee marching upon 
Canada would have electrifled the world, and 
would have done more in a day towards reconcil- 
iation and the restoration of the Union tnan has 
been accomplished in thirty years of peace. But 
did we resort to war? No. The nation loved 
peace more than it loved glory or revenge, and 
we appealed not to war but to arbitration. 

Again, consider the present situation in Cuba. 
Here is one of the richest and most fertile islands 
in the world, lying at our very door, the key to 
the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the 
Isthmus of Panama. We long since proclaimed to 
the world that no nation other than Spain should be 
permitted to obtain control of Cuba. For three 
years its people have been engaged in an heroic 
struggle to achieve their independence. For three 
years one of the most cruel and barbarous wars of 
modern times has been waged against a people de- 
votedly struggling for liberty. The island is well- 
nigh devastated, its people reduced to abject pov- 
erty, and thousands and thousands of them to 
absolute starvation. The story of their suffering 
has shocked humanity. But in spite of our deep 
interest in the prosperity of Cuba and our sym- 
pathy for its struggling patriots, we have adhered 
faithfully to our international obligations and have 
rigorously abstained from intervention. 



15 

May God speed the day when peace with liberty 
shall gladden the hearts of that brave and long 
suffering people. 

Against the charge of belligerent tendencies and 
of a disposition to enter upon a career of bloodshed 
and conquest, I put the fact, as stated by Presi- 
dent Eliot, of Harvard University, that during the 
brief period of our national life the United Statns 
have been a party to forty-seven arbitrations — 
being more than half of all that have taken place 
in modern times and embracing subjects which 
would have been deemed by other nations ample 
cause for war. 

The fear, therefore, that the annexation of 
Hawaii will lead to the adoption of a new and 
dangerous i)olicy on our part is unfounded and 
absurd. To annex the islands is to avoid becoming 
entangled with other nations on their account. I 
am fur annexation to preserve peace and to avoid 
war. 

There is one other measure of vital moment to 
the future prosperity and safety of this nation 
which should be undertaken before the close of the 
})resent century, and that is, the construction of 
the Mcaraguan Canal. The vast consequences to 
this nation that hang upon its successful accomplish- 
ment cannot be overestimated. The canal should 
be built and controlled by the United States alone. 
In addition to the commercial advantages of the 
canal, its construction is demanded as a measure of 
national defense. To-day we are compelled to 
maintain two virtually saparate and independent 
navies. More than eight years ago, I toolv 
occasion as Sscretary of the Navy, to say, in 
speaking of the necessities of our naval force, that 
our position demanded the immediate completion 
of two fleets of battleships, a fleet of eight to be 
assigned to the Pacific and one of twelve to the 
Atlantic and the Gulf. This was lonff before 



Japan had become tlie great naval power that she 
is now recognized to be. To-day we need the same 
naval force in the Pacific as upon the Atlantic. 
Instead of having twelve battleships upon the 
Pacific we have only one. The Nicaraguan Canal 
would unite the navies of the Atlantic and Pacific 
and make them available on either coast as the 
emergency might arise. We would then have one 
strong and efiicient navy, instead of being com- 
pelled to maintain two weaR and comj)aratively 
inefficient ones. If the canal is built for one hun- 
dred and fifty million dollars, the reduced expense 
of the navy would pay the annual interest on its 
total cost. 

The annexation of the Hawaiian Islands and the 
beginning of the Nicaraguan Canal should crowji 
our achievements in the present century. What 
destiny awaits the nation in the century that is to 
come, it is not given to man to know. But, having 
faith in the future of my country. I firmly believe 
that the prophecy of that great Englishman, John 
Bright, uttered during the most discouraging crisis 
of our civil war will then be fulfilled. Replying 
at Birmingham, in 1862, to the declaration of 
Gladstone that the restoration of the Union was 
impossible and that the cause of the North was 
hopeless, he said: ''I cannot believe, for my x>art, 
that such a fate will befall that fair land, stricken 
though it now is with the ravages of war. I cannot 
believe that civilization, in its journey with the sun, 
will sink into endless night in order to gratify the 
ambition of the leaders of this revolt. ... I have 
another and a far brighter vision before my gaze. It 
may be but a vision, but I will cherish it. I see 
one vast confederation stretching from the frozen 
North in unbroken line to the glowing South, and 
from the wild billows of the Atlantic westward to 
the calmer waters of the Pacific main, — and I see 
one i)eople, and one language, and one law, and 
one faith, and, over all that wide continent, the 



17 

home of freedom, and a refuge for the oppressed of 
every race and of every clime." 

To the memory of John Bright, orator, statesman 
and philanthropist, the friend of the United States 
in its darkest hour, there should be erected in the 
Capital of the nation a monument having inscribed 
thereon the words which I have quoted. In the 
history of the war for the preservation of the Union 
the name of John Bright will ever be connected by 
every patriotic American with that other name 
immortal — Abraham Lincoln. 



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